SATURDAY'S sparkling Dubai Champion Stakes winner Bosra Sham will stay in training next season when she will stick to racing at a mile and a quarter, Henry Cecil revealed yesterday.

The filly had never previously run over further than a mile, at which trip she landed the Pertemps 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket in May and finished second to Mark Of Esteem in last month's Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot.

But she showed no stamina problems as she ended Halling's long unbeaten run on turf in the £200,000-added Newmarket showpiece, quickening smartly to score by two and a half lengths from a 10-furlong specialist, with Timarida another length back in third place.

And her trainer announced: "She will probably stick to a mile and a quarter next year. I haven't had time to give much thought to plans for next season but it seems that is probably her best distance. She showed a lethal turn of foot over the trip yesterday."

Bosra Sham's triumph sparked a moving celebration at Newmarket, as Cecil was brought near to tears by rapturous applause from an appreciative crowd.

Among the first to congratulate him was Sheikh Mohammed, the leading owner who 12 months ago removed his horses from the Cecil stable following an acrimonious fall-out over the training of Mark of Esteem.

Shaking Cecil warmly by the hand, the Sheikh said: "Well done. Congratulations. That was your hard work. Good luck."

And at the presentation later, the Sheikh theatrically turned Cecil's prize, a silver dagger, on himself to pretend that the trainer was stabbing him in the heart.

"That is the first time we have talked for a long time," said Cecil afterwards. "He behaved like a gentleman. He couldn't have been nicer. I would like to think we are friends. We are not enemies."

The race had been billed as the final showdown for the trainers championship between Cecil and Godolphin's Saeed bin Suroor, with Cecil racing more than £60,000 in front when Bosra Sham, a 9 to 4 chance, sprinted by Hallinit two furlongs out.

But there are enough big races left this year for the former Dubai policeman to prevent Cecil heading the table for the first time since 1990, with no fewer than 19 races carrying more than £10,000 in added money to be run before the end of the turf season.

Next Saturday could be crucial, with £75,000 in added money up for grabs in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster. Bin Suroor yesterday shelled out £30,000 to supplement Asas and Medaaly for the last Group One race of the season in Britain.

But Cecil is a hard man to beat in the one-mile two-year-old race, having won it nine times in the past, and he's aiming Royal Lodge Stakes third Besiege at the prize.